Key fails to guard the guardians

Oversight of a nation’s security agencies is vital to democracy. Our government’s spies are overseen by two people – the Prime Minister and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. According the to government narrative, the former asked the latter to investigate he found out the GCSB had been illegally spying on two Kiwis. And, guess what, the report blamed underlings. It didn’t even investigate the question of whether their oversight was up to scratch.

The short, pathetic little report that Neazor produced (and which Key sat on for two days) fails to address any significant questions. According to the official narrative, some GCSB people fucked up by believing the incompetent Police who told them that Dotcom wasn’t a permanent resident and misreading their own legislation. To make sure you got the line – it called the law “confusing” or referred to GSBC “confusion” a good half a dozen times.

Fuck up or malice, it’s a breach of the law and those people should be prosecuted. But how did it get to that? And how did it, officially, not get discovered for eight months? That’s a question of oversight.

Neazor,as Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is meant to be provide active monitoring – going in and checking out the GCSB’s activities, who they’re spying on, how they’re using their warrants. He says he goes to their offices regularly. When did he first learn that they had spied on Dotcom – not that the spying was illegal, but that it had happened (which should have triggered questions from him over whether Dotcom is a permanent resident)? The report is silent on that.

Then, there’s Key. As Minister of the GCSB, Key has ministerial powers and duties that are extraordinary. Ordinarily, ministers are not meant to get involved in the day to day affairs of ministries but the GCSB Act says: “The performance of the Bureau’s functions is subject to the control of the Minister.” Key has to sign off on every warrant that the GCSB requests and has to “control” the organisation, even its activities that don’t require warrants (the spying on Dotcom would have fallen into this category – except it was illegal with or without warrant to spy on a NZ resident).

Where was that “control”? Did Key ever ask if the GCSB was involved in the Dotcom raids? Did he ask in those monthly meetings with the GCSB (and why didn’t they raise it)? Did he ask when he was told about the Dotcom raid the day before it happened – when Key claims he first heard Dotcom’s name? Did he ask then which agencies were involved? The report is silent.

The report doesn’t even tell us when the GCSB worked out that it had spied on Dotcom illegally.

It’s a whitewash. And that just raised the question: what are the failed guardians trying to hide? Even if it is their own incompetence, it is a resignation level offence.

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87 comments on “Key fails to guard the guardians”

Nothing to fear, nothing to declare, no knowlegde, no, nada, nix, know nothing, nix of this, I don’t know who gave me money, don’t know nothing about Dotcom, don’t know about the raid, don’t know about search warrants or any such things, aye?

John Key, have you any conscience, and this man lives in YOUR electorate, he is is registered VOTER, I believe!

So sad to see on TV 6 o’clock News Green Party leader Russell Norman be the media’s go to opposition POV on this and other prime opportunities. The invisible Labour leader remains holed up in a bunker surrounded by sycophants who reassure him that his clothing is majestic.Labour’s seeming irrelevance has reached an all time low.

It’s horse shit to say it is incompetence or a mistake – anyone with half a brain and s touch of insight can work out it is a deliberate breach of the law in order to aid and abet the FBI and the CIA – simple as that – and it shouldn’t be a surprize – the GSCB and the SIS do this shit all the time – only difference is that this ended up in a court and was subject to scruitiney by lawyers not sold out.

It’s horse shit to say it is incompetence or a mistake – anyone with half a brain and s touch of insight can work out it is a deliberate breach of the law in order to aid and abet the FBI and the CIA

Gruntie

Absolutely, Gruntie.

There is more than enough overseas experience to show that US intelligence agencies, have a deliberate foreign policy of subverting and infiltrating the intelligence services and law enforcement agencies of other countries for their own purposes. Encouraging them to ignore the government’s they serve, and to disregard the rights of the people they are paid to protect.

When it comes to upholding the law, the intelligence agencies are more busy looking to the interests of the Western hemisphere foreign powers they are covertly linked to.

Making them completely useless against, and blind to, terrorism arising from this source. So it proved in the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

Of course the other notorious proof of our secret intelligence services covert links to Western hemisphere intelligence agencies, was the Ahmed Zowie case.

Against all the evidence that Ahmed Zowie was a peacefully democratically elected political refugee deposed in a bloody coup by a military regime and sentenced in absentia to death on his return.

The SIS instead chose to believe (still unrevealed) secret evidence arising from within the French Secret Service.

(The very same state agency responsible for the Rainbow Warrior bombing).

Despite the fact that the French State and Frencgh Secret Services had links to the military leaders that had deposed the democratically elected government in Algeria, the SIS did everything in their power to aid that state to return Zowie to his probable torture and death.

I have come across many cases of incompetence, wrongdoing, cover-ups, false accusations, malpractice, abuse, neglect, criminal negligence and much, much more. I am sorry, I hate to be a bit of a “stinker”, but really, there is so much going on here, which would be unacceptable in most developed countries, yet it always gets “excused away” as “once off”, “single” cases, it is not bloody funny.

It is time that this government, and others for that bloody sake, get real, take their responsibilities seriously, do not break laws, do not neglect people and their rights, welfare and so, and act in a manner that is responsible, accountable and to some fair degree transparent.

The latter is apparently going to be abolished, as government and it’s departments and ministries want to cover up and do away with accountabilities. I have some real bloody stuff to uncover, and you better get your f-ing business right, right now, I suggest to all those concerned. Otherwise I will see you at the court soon, thank you, bull shit government, the Crown and whatever you call yourselves.

I think corruption is far more endemic to NZ than most (including me) would have assumed even just a few years ago. The shear stink of it coming from NACT in the last few weeks must be (hopefully) waking up quite a few people though.

…yet it always gets “excused away” as “once off”, “single” cases, it is not bloody funny.

That wouldn’t surprise me. I think that the concept of breaking the rules for the right cause is possibly a generally accepted idea. It’s certainly an idea that I was raised with and I’ve seen such messages coming through in the MSM news. The problem with it is that people will always believe that they’re breaking the rules for the right cause.

Where a person I know got arrested for questionable reasons at a protest, and then was punched in the face twice by police officers – while handcuffed – when being pushed into a cell; all charges were later thrown out – by a judge actually known for his “hard” line!!!?;
where a complaint to the Independent Police Conduct Authority later lets the cops involved off, as they denied all knowledge, as CTV records were not kept, as the affected person had no witness, all leading to none, and due to also the IPCA usually handing “investigations” back to the police;
where the Office of Ombudsmen lets a leading government off the hook for only providing very small amounts of information sought under the O.I.A.;
where the same office sits for 6 months on another complaint about staff working at a health board, who acted in a mnner of criminal negligence when allowing an abuse victim with mental health problems to be “looked after” by the very abuser as “caregiver”; they did NOTHING for 6 months, and only after unanswered emails, a number of phone calls, was it finally looked at; the health board refused to make information available under O.I.A. and Privacy Act;
when a complaint about professional misconduct to the Health and Disability Commissioner is first tried to be rejected in an attempted “white wash”, and when after an O.I.A. request to their legal department they officially look at it again, but NO answer being given for 14 months now, apparently trying to find another way to “protect” an incompetent health care provider from prosecution;
when endless emails with highly sensitive and exposing information to some senior journalists of mainstream media do apparently not get followed up, ignored and no story getting written, as this may expose serious legal breaches by government agencies ….

when you see and hear such stuff, it makes it clear to me, that NZ is a corrupt and “old boys network” country indeed!

Only due to Dotcom being such a public, high rating figure, only due to his case being such a huge one, and only due to him and his expert legal team digging into stuff, is this becoming public.

If it was “joe average”, it would all have been covered up and have not consequences for all law breakers involved.

The same applies to the Bronwyn Pullar story about the illegal and highly questionable processes followed by ACC. If it had not involved such a high level personality, it would never have been reported on.

And what about WiNZ and a biased Principal Health Advisor and law breaches there re med. assessments? Nothing gets said or addressed.

So be “proud” of all such crap going on. Send your young men also to Afghanistan to get blown up and shot for trying to bail out the US and their agendas. But the public thinks it is all for the right cause, right? What a sick joke indeed!

Neazor was always horribly conflicted. He had the role as Inspector-General of monitoring the GCSB’s activities. Key asking him to report on obviously illegal activities, which Neazor had miserably failed to monitor, would always result in Neazor covering his own arse above anything else.

Key should have appointed another current or retired Judge to undertake the investigation, preferably someone like Justice Ted Thomas who had the courage to rat on a fellow Judge (Justice William Young) whom he considered had acted corruptly and with conflict of interest and who subsequently resigned in disgrace.

No. Not clusterfuck, not ignorance. Sinister is what it is. It’s the GCSB and perhaps the PM too thinking “who gives a shit, no one will notice” and it’s the people who think ” Kim.com is a fat dodgy foreigner so who gives a fuck” when it’s actually one less thing which separates us from North Korea. Urewera anyone? Bash down the doors of anarchist bicycle repair men? Who next? Conform or face the consequences.

When people question a sociopath’s lies, the only way they know how to respond is with more lies. They are also skilled at making their opponent look and feel stupid for questioning. But when you are the PM there are people who actually check the things you say. That’s why Key is so enamoured with the “I’m not in a position to answer that question” lines – he says nothing and kills the question. It’s also why he thought he was so clever not reading the Banks police report. To the rest of us it’s a childish defence, but to Key it’s a winner.

People here have liked him to Sgt. Schultz, “I know nuttink!”, but someone else mentioned Bart Simposon’s classic “I didn’t do it, no one saw me do it, there’s no way you can prove anything.” I think that’s more on the money.

I agree that the report is weak and doesn’t address any of the important issues, but those issues stem from questions that are more political than anything else so don’t easily fall within the role of the inspector-general. Neazor was just carrying out a duty within what is a fairly narrow role under s 11(1)(da) of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act which says

“…to review the effectiveness and appropriateness of the procedures adopted by the Government Communications Security Bureau to ensure compliance with the provisions of Part 3 of the Government Communications Security Bureau Act 2003 in relation to the issue and execution of interception warrants and computer access authorisations:”

If you want the answers to the big questions that could show precisely why the GCSB were involved (and hopefully whether Key has lied) then you need a report with a bigger brief. Neazor didn’t have that brief and in any case the Act cannot give it to him. So keep doing what you’re doing by calling for a wider inquiry which will necessarily need someone not restrained by the confines of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act. But stop saying that Neazor has a conflict of interest. In this particular case he doesn’t and going on about it will get you nowhere. The problem lies elsewhere therefore your remedy does, too. Just go for that wider inquiry and make sure it’s done by someone who’s got the grunt to really get amongst it and I’m sure you’ll find some joy.

“some GCSB people fucked up by believing the incompetent Police who told them that Dotcom wasn’t a permanent resident”

My understanding of how this particular “debacle” (National must be worried about how often the MSM is now using this word in conjunction with their activities) came about was NOT that the Police told the GSCB that Dotcom was not a permanent resident BUT that GCSB asked the Police if Dotcom IS a foreign national to which they replied “Yes”, which is a whole different kettle of fish (I assume that Dotcom is still a German citizen?). So it seems more that it was a poorly worded query on the GCSB’s part. Still doesn’t change the fact that this was a massive clusterfuck on an international level. But you know, it is all semantics.

Of course I might be wrong, but this was my understanding of how it kicked off.

Thing is, we don’t actually know what the exact question was or even if there was a question. Both the police and the GCSB should have known who they were dealing with before they started spying on him for the FBI.

Ahh, right. My impression is probably due to poor reporting (or my mis-reading). Although STUFF reported that the documents state “GCSB sought assurance that all the persons of interest were foreign nationals. OFCANZ gave that assurance”.

I suspect that the police, knowing that GCSB couldn’t target NZ residents, provided a deliberately ambiguous statement of Dotcom’s immigration status. GCSB came to the party by taking a generous interpretation of this and not enquiring further. Deliberate collusion to evade the law, basically.

The government should release the text of the correspondence between GCSB and Police (OFCANZ).

Government agencies are increasingly trying to keep information secret, the office charged with ensuring fair access to public information says.

The Office of the Ombudsman, whose tasks include regulating the release of information under the Official Information Act (OIA), outlined concerns in its annual report presented to Parliament yesterday.

Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem said there was a worrying trend of agencies trying to seek exemption from the act.

I have a feeling Dotcom will be extradited back to the states,the fat German slug is not worth the hassle.
Unless the guy wants to spend the next 20 years behind bars in some shitty US jail, the best thing he could do is shut his mouth and keep a low profile.

From what I read, they misinterpreted the definition of what a resident was,nothing devious or underhanded
Anyway Schmit is a shifty untrustworthy mother fucker who’s caused endless hassles and is getting in the way with his bullshit, how he made the grade to be considered for residency I will never know.
The sooner he’s out of the country the better, he has nothing of value to add to NZ.

BM – ‘is a shifty untrustwothy mother fucker who’s caused endless hassles and is getting away with his bullshit’ describes John Key to a t, how he made the grade to be considered for PM no one will ever know.

It seems the law and processes around becoming or resident or defining what a resident is has become a confusing pile of contradictions which is leading to confusion
The way I see it, if a department trips up on something as basic as “What is a the definition of a NZ resident”, I think the whole thing needs a total rewrite.

I note that the person charged with making sure the GCSB doesn’t screw up is a retired High Court judge, used to dealing with complex legislation, and further, that this situation doesn’t apply to a residency application, it applies to an extradition warrant.

Immigration law changed a couple of years ago as to who is defined as a resident. They trusted the advice of the Police/OCANZ and did not apply/seem aware of the new definition (even though the GCSB Act was updated to reflect the 2009 Immigration Act), which is why Key probably explicitly criticised the GCSB legal team. That lack of awareness of the change could indicate that they don’t do this kind of thing that often (silver lining and all that…).

They changed heaps of laws a couple of years ago,
They are blind Fools, who mis represented a critical figure at negotiations and are now reaping the reward.
They thought it was bloddy Marketing freakin idiots.
Those countires would have known it too, even would’ve tried to counsel them on it I’d imagine.
No wonder Hillary was laughing at them.
Australia would’ve sat there in shocked silence I’d imagine, God bless them too they are bloody good people, somethin to do with their origins they tell us, they are a leat mastering their evil past.

According to the Neazor report which I have read Dotcom is either a German Ciitizen or a Finnish one.
He is in New Zealand after having deposited $10 mill in NZ Govt stock.
He has an entry in one or both of his passports which allows him NZ residency.
If he were to go overseas (to try and unlock his overseas money) he may not find in say Hong Kong, where he has hundreds of millions locked up, that they will be sympathetic to his NZ rubber stamp and may extradite him to US.
He will not be extradited from NZ.
He has great expensive lawyers, but has he any money available to pay them ?

surely he can send a letter via snail mail, he must have someone here he can talk too.
courier it to the embassy, it’ll get through….not
some people are trying to set a precedent, and it’s unworthy in this context , a civilised outcome is the context required.
He needs his cash to pay it needs to be included somehow.

No, Key has been very successful in leading NZ down the path to greater inequality, extreme poverty, subservience to the US and becoming serfs to foreign ownership. Exactly what he was, apparently, hired to do.

If it comes to a court case, will Key throw GSCB officials to the dogs?

“Basic errors”

“Blunders”

“inept”

These are the words of John Key to explain away the behaviour of the secret agencies supposedly under his control.

That may be preferable to the other, more sinister, explanation – that the GCSB spied on Dotcom knowing it was unlawful but, because it is so heavily protected by secrecy, believed it would never be caught. It was only rumbled because a policeman tripped over his words in court.

Personally I agree with Tracy Watkins above analysis, over John Key’s explanation of stupidity and Keystone Kops incompetence.

There is more than enough evidence to show that US intelligence agencies, deliberately subvert and infiltrate the intelligence services and law enforcement agencies of ‘their’ allies, encouraging them to break the laws of the government’s they serve, and to disregard the rights of the people they are paid to protect.

The most well known and notorious case in history of course being in Chili where the CIA working closely working with the local military leaders to stage a coup against the Allende government that was threatening to regulate the US owned Chilean copper industry and other American business interests.

The CIA was so linked with the Chilean intelligence agency that Chillean agents were able to enter the US to assassinate the Allende ambassador on the streets of Wasington DC and get away with it.

This secret service blindness has echoes to the Rainbow Warrior bombing here.

When it comes to upholding the law the intelligence agencies are more busy looking to the interests of the Western hemisphere foreign powers they are covertly linked to.

Before the anti Terror raids on Tuhoe it came out that Police Commissioner Howard Broad had been extensively wined and dined by top American security officials in a series of completely uncontrolled and unremarked junkets to Washington DC. Not long after these revelations were leaked to the Truth newspaper Howard Broad despite claiming that he would stay for a second term instead quietly went into retirement.

So sometimes these things do come out.

With the Prime Minister claiming that the GSCB’s behavior is all down to GSCB incompetence.

Lower ranked GSCB agents must be biting their nails, hoping against hope that their reliance on the defence of state secrecy prevails, or they too might be up before charges for their illegal activities.

Welcome to the BANANA Republic New Zealand/Aoteoroa.
My advice to Dotcom is figure out how many licenses he stole off Microsoft and send a Lawyer offering an out of court settlement for them.
Case Closed bud.

The GCSB are a bunch of incompetent witches who got their heads kicked in last night, including the bossman.

Pull on one finger bone, and sometimes a whole closet load of skeletons will tumble out into the light of day.

GSCB and SIS and senior police must be praying that unlike in Italy all this never reaches the courts and that state secrecy prevails over truth in court.

In Italy 23 CIA agents have been convicted of civil rights violations by Italian courts and for illegally working with Italian intelligence agents to abduct a Moslem cleric from Italian territory to a territory where torture is legal, in the notorious CIA practice known as “extraordinary rendition”. In a reversal of the Dotcom case, their extradition is being vigorously opposed by US lawyers working for the American authorities. As well as this, five Italian secret service agents including it’s director at the time, are facing charges of aiding them.

This sentence proves that Italy is a state still under the rule of law. Today Italy’s top criminal court gave Abou Omar back his dignity.

The question is; Is the New Zealand state still under the rule of law?

In the same sort of arrogant criminal behavior on display in the Dotcom case, US intelligence agencies backed by the State Department are expected to defy the legal ruling of the Italian courts.

But back here in NZ these same agencies expect us to honour their demands for the extradition of Dotcom without due process?

Will the New Zealand courts have the courage of the Italian courts to stand up to the US authorities, and agree to give Kim Dotcom “back his dignity” with a fair hearing?

Or will he be deported as the Americans demand, without any evidence against him being presented?

Will our courts demand that the US authorities provide at least some of the evidence they claim they hold against Dotcom. Or will he be delivered by us, into the US gulag without a fair hearing. Where like Bradly Manning, and many others, Kim Dotcom could be held for years in prison without trial?

The government’s lawyer, John Pike, said the District Court and High Court do not have the power to order evidence to be disclosed in the extradition process being used. If the record of the case was thought it inadequate the process was for the judge at the extradition hearing to invite the government to add to the record.

But Paul Davison, QC, acting for Dotcom, said the extradition hearing – currently due to be heard next March – was the same as committing someone for trial. The government had to show evidence that, on the face of it, Dotcom and the others had a case to answer.

Dotcom would have “both his hands tied behind his back” if he had to go through the extradition hearing without knowing the evidence being used to back up the allegations.

As the Italian case shows, the US knows a lot about extraditing people with ‘their hands tied behind their backs’. In fact it is their preferred method of conducting cross border ‘justice’.

One of the reasons the CIA were able to carry out the illegal abduction of Abou Omar is that the Americans have US troops and marines and their special service agents stationed on Italian soil. Unlike here in NZ where they had to rely on the local police and enforcement agencies to apprehend Dotcom. Obviously if John Key relents to the US demand for a permanent US Marine base here along with all that entails ie uncontrolled and monitered miltary flights in and out of the country the FBI and the CIA could dispense with most of the messy reliance on local authorities and due process in abducting someone like Dotcom, just as they have done with Abou Omar, and as they could have done with Ahmed Zowie.

The Italian court hearings keep on giving.

In another obvious parallel with the case against Dotcom, Italian Secret Service Agents are currently facing charges of breaking Italian law in illegally working with the US authorities to assist in the “extraordinary rendition” and subsequent torture of Abou Omar.

The Supreme Court also ordered New appeal trials for five Italian Intelligence Agents including Italy’s top two former military intelligence officers, Nicola Polari and his ex deputy Marco Mancini. Polari and Mancini had repeatedly been aquitted on appeal in the past, because of the State Secrecy Injunction…..

….For the first time ever in Italy truth has prevailed over state secrecy in court.

Press TV 21 Sept. 2012. 1.23 minutes into video.

The government in claiming that the GSCB’s behavior is all down to incompetence of some GSCB officials and not culture of deliberate systemic law breaking, is setting the table where the prosecution of these so called “incompetent” individuals will be demanded to cover for the glaring missing democratic oversight of this oganisation.

According the to government narrative…..

……. guess what, the report blamed underlings. It didn’t even investigate the question of whether their oversight was up to scratch.

EDDIE

Lower ranked GSCB agents must be biting their nails, hoping against hope that their reliance on the defence of state secrecy prevails, or they too might be up before charges for their illegal activities on behalf of a foreign power.

I’m surprised Shonkey Johnkey isn’t legislating this away – that’s what he does when there’s something he doesn’t like… he just changes the law!

He cried like a little bitch when he thought HIS rights and that of his toady W(b)anks were being infringed upon a la Teapotgate. The police *then* had plenty of spare time to investigate the ‘criminal’ reporter. And now, with national security at stake, and shoddy, cavalier attitudes prevailing there’s ‘no need’ for further investigation.

The best and most simplest solution to the Dotcom fiasco for the government and all our state agencies involved in this matter is to declare to the Americans and the world, that our sovereignity is sacred.

That the Americans if they wish to prosecute Kim Dotcom will have to lay charges against him in a New Zealand Court under New Zealand laws. Where they will have to prove to the satisfaction of our Justice System, that New Zealand resident Kim Dotcom has broken either New Zealand, or international law. And further, that if the Americans want to extradite Dotcom to stand trial in America as well, then they can do so on his conviction and sentencing.

In the case of aquittal the US authorities are just as free as anyone else to appeal that aquittal, just as anyone else has the right to do. In fact with all the resources at their disposal they are freer than most to do so. (That is if they have any reasonable case at all)

This simple solution serves all national, international legal and human rights and democratic norms as well as serving justice to Kim Dotcom himself.

Not only this but it will bring huge international prestige to this country.

Which way will Key and our spooks go?

Low cunning and deal making practiced behind closed doors, with dishonourable forelock tugging and groveling to the yanks, all covered over by secrecy.

Or honourable and courageous independent justice and foreign policy admired around the world.

Microsoft are the only ones capable of actually proving this type of case anywhere in the world.
If DotCom faces up to what he’s done and makes an appropriate offer the whole thing will likely disappear.

Shearer was ok. He said he’s trying to balance keeping a public profile for the issue with his role on the security oversight committee. Hide has the advantage, as he said, of having gone through this kind of thing before so could talk about what he did.

I enjoy your insights g and your advice to labour. i listened to shearer with Mary yesterday after 5 and he was pretty good on that one. The big issue I have is that everything being done (by like-minded lefties) is to remove the gnats and their horrible support parties – if that is achieved – most likely due to their own incompetance and unethical behaviour, well then someone else will have to be PM. Now personally I’d love Hone but I can’t see him doing it – it is not where his talents lie. The fact is that labour will likely get the reins and that means that shearer gets the reins. Now i don’t rate shearer very highly for all the reasons we all know, but and it is a big but – he is a million times better than key and labour for all their faults are better than national. I won’t vote labour but i’ll work bloody hard to get rid of the gnats.

The Greens have asked the Police to investigate the GCSB fiasco under the same section of the Crimes Act as Key asked them to investigate the Bradley Ambrose teacup issue – on the grounds that KDC’s privacy has been breached!

Norman repeated Key’s assertion that he called in police because ” it was a “matter of principle”.

“When he was taped in a public café by a media person discussing matters of public interest, Key kicked up an almighty fuss and had police raid media outlets to make sure the tape wasn’t released,” he said.

“If Prime Minister Key really feels so strongly about a person’s right to privacy, then he should back my call for the police to investigate the illegal surveilling of New Zealand residents by a government spy agency.

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This bulletin inventories reactions to recent revelations made about Wiilie Soon's relationship with the fossil fuel industry while employed by the Smithsonian Institution at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This bulletin also functions as a supplementary reading list to Dana's recently posted… ...

Let’s be clear: constitutionally, the Executive decides where and how troops are deployed. John Key did not need Parliament’s approval to go to war. And let’s be clear: Key is going to war. Iraq is at war. Training its… ...

Press Release – Doctors for Healthy Trade A careful assessment of what could happen to the health of New Zealanders under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is needed, say New Zealand doctors. An Australian report Negotiating Healthy Trade in… ...

Press Release – Public Health Association of Australia A report released today by a large team of academics and non-government health organisations reveals that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) poses risks to the health of Australians in areas such as… ...

Professor Shiba knew that some day he might be captured by the Yamatais – he, who alone knew the secrets of the ancient monster race that would soon rise up to conquer the world. So he patiently stored himself in… ...

Is this for real? Mike Hosking equates jobs, such as his, a talking head with a soldier’s deployment in Iraq? Please tell me this man is joking? Unbelievable. Is this the ‘get some guts’ that Key talks about? Getting guts… ...

by Danios Below, I have reproduced a year-by-year timeline of America’s wars, which reveals something quite interesting: since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar… ...

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so we were extremely flattered to see Auckland Transport today start using the images below to advertise some of the benefits of the City Rail Link. … ...

Policy Quarterly has just published papers from a symposium on distributional inequality held last June. There are really interesting papers by Geoff Bertram, Phillip Morrison, Bill Rosenberg and Simon Chapple et al which you may want to read for yourself.read&hellip; ...

Bartholomew Leading A broken rib is no big deal. Sure, it hurts like Hell, but three or more broken ribs hurt worse and, snapped and broken and freely moving under the weight and pressure of a 280lb man can… ...

Tony Abbott's visit to New Zealand gave Australian political commentators another excuse to highlight the failings of his leadership, by comparing him with John Key. However, their list of John Key's successes is a little... odd:Key has, with a minimum… ...

The fight against Islamic State is not the fight of the oppressor against the disposed and the poor. Its leaders and disciples are mostly educated and middle class, if not wealthy. It’s the victims in Iraq and Syria who are the poor.read more ...

Guest Post from Ryan Mearns, Generation Zero Auckland For nearly 50 years from the early 1950’s Auckland invested solely in roads, and especially motorways, with all other transport modes being totally ignored. This one sided level of investment was not… ...

by Michael Roberts Recently Noah Smith pointed out that “Modern macro-economists think that recessions and booms are random fluctuations around a trend. These fluctuations tend to die out — a deep recession leads to a fast recovery, and a big expansion tends… ...

Danyl has some thought-provoking comments about the Herald’s analysis of electoral donations: MPs and other political insiders get really upset if you suggest to them that this is all basically political corruption. Partly this is down to their massive egos. MPs don’t think… ...

The minimum wage rose by 50 cents this month from 14.25 to 14.75. While it’s a small step towards ensuring minimum workers get a fair share, it’s important to remember that real wages only rose 1.5% while productivity rose by… ...

Ever since rumours that (now former) National MP Mike Sabin was being investigated by police were made public, the question on everyone's lips has been "what did the Prime Minister know and when did he know it?" Sabin has since… ...

The Larsen C ice shelf on the east coast of the Antarctic peninsula is primed for a giant iceberg calving event, and could be heading for total collapse — similar to the fate of the Larsen B ice shelf… ...

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The current and previous Revenue Ministers must front up and explain how the child support system had a budget blowout from $30 million to $210 million in just four years, says Labour’s Revenue spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove. “Peter Dunne was Revenue… ...

A review of the way MPs’ pay is set should also look at ways to curb excessive rises in the salaries of public service chief executives, Labour Leader Andrew Little says. “Some of these CEOs have had stratospheric pay increases… ...

The minimum wage rose by 50 cents this month from 14.25 to 14.75. While it’s a small step towards ensuring minimum workers get a fair share, it’s important to remember that real wages only rose 1.5% while productivity rose by… ...

It should seem obvious to employers, private or public, that it’s important to do what you can to retain your best, most experienced staff. They make life easier for you because they’re effective, attentive and often respected by those around… ...

That ban was widely hailed, and spurred efforts in other countries to get similar bans. However, apes are still being exploited, abused and killed, both in captivity and in the wild. Examples of cruelty, neglect and abuse abound. Apes are… ...

The only word to describe the latest building consent figures for Auckland is ‘tragic’, Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says. “Whatever the Government is doing to address the Auckland housing crisis, it is clearly not working. ...

A pest which could create havoc for New Zealand’s horticulture and agriculture sector must be as much a focus for the Government as hunting out fruit flies, Labour’s Biosecurity spokesperson Damien O’Connor says. “While the Ministry for Primary Industries is… ...

Despite new evidence showing that cuts to health spending are costing lives the Government continues to deny the sector is struggling, Labour’s Health spokesperson Annette King says. “Health services in New Zealand are in crisis. ...

When Hekia Parata became aware that the Whangaruru charter school was experiencing major problems her first action was to drop standards by reducing the number of qualified teachers they had to employ, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins has revealed. “Hekia… ...

John Key and Bill English need to be straight with New Zealanders about the damage their failure to diversify the economy is doing, after new figures show export growth plunged due to a collapse in dairy exports, says Grant Robertson.… ...

This week the International Monetary Fund released a report on the wider economic value in closing the gender pay gap. When even the bastions of free-market economics start to raise concerns about gender pay gaps, we have to realise how… ...

Labour will hold National to its promise to increase the support given to new parents of premature, multiple birth and babies born with disabilities, Labour’s paid parental leave campaigner Sue Moroney says. "I am naturally disappointed that after battling for… ...

Steven Joyce’s confession that he can no longer guarantee a pillar-free design for the New Zealand International Convention Centre shows the Government has abandoned its dream of creating an ‘iconic’ ‘world-class’ structure, says Labour Economic Development spokesperson David Clark. “Steven… ...

John Key might want to have a quiet word with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott about Canberra's just-announced crack down on offshore speculators when he visits New Zealand this week, Labour's Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says."Tony Abbott's centre right government… ...

National backbencher Jacqui Dean has spoken out about overseas driver crashes, putting herself at odds with Prime Minister John Key who is on record as saying it’s not a big issue, Labour’s Transport spokesperson Phil Twyford says. “I’m not surprised… ...

Last week I heard two Palestinians speak at Wellington events about the ongoing crisis in their country. Samar Sabawi spoke to a full house about the history of Palestine and gave us a lucid and disturbing account of the situation… ...

An Amnesty International report has once again criticised New Zealand’s track record on looking after our kids, Labour’s Children’s spokesperson Jacinda Ardern says. The annual report, which looks at global human rights abuses highlights not only the fact that high… ...

It is clear that the first draft of the Māori Language Bill was about structures and funding rather than the survival of te reo Māori, Labour’s Māori Development Spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta says. “Labour is pleased that the Minister of Māori… ...

The long-awaited release of an Education Review Office report into Northland’s troubled Whangaruru charter school proves it should never have been approved in the first place, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says. “This report identifies problems with absenteeism and disengaged… ...

This week the Greens have participated in awareness activity about Manus Island, the refugee camp on an island in Papua New Guinea where Australia dumps asylum seekers. John Key says that he has every confidence in the Australian Government’s claim… ...

James Shaw has been doing a series of blogs on the Election Inquiry into last year’s general election. I thought this was a great opportunity to raise an issue very dear to me – accessible voting. Last year’s general election… ...

Housing will continue to be a big issue in 2015. The latest Consumer Price Index, released last month, shows both good news and bad news on the housing front. After years of being the most expensive place to build a… ...

It is amazing that you can hear the song of the endangered North Island kokako in South Auckland’s Hunua Ranges, less than 50 kms from the central city. A heavy schedule of policy workshops at the Green Party’s Policy… ...

The Cricket World Cup has just opened in New Zealand, and it’s an opportunity for us to shine on the world stage. International sport can be a chance for us to build relationships with other countries, and examine what it… ...

This week it was my privilege to work with Sri Lankan Tamil communities in this country and host Australian journalist and human rights advocate Trevor Grant. I knew a bit about Trevor from his biography but I didn’t know just… ...

The Government is about to progress the final stages of the Animal Welfare Amendment bill. This will be our last opportunity to get changes made to improve the bill to ensure a better outcome for animals. I have put forwards… ...

Access to buildings is a big issue for many New Zealanders. It looks like that, due to the hard work and persistence of people in the disability community, the Government may finally be starting to take access to buildings seriously.… ...

The Green Party today called on the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (the Fund) to divest from fossil fuels, starting immediately with coal. The call was accompanied with a new report, Making money from a climate catastrophe: The case for divesting… ...

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The Privy Council’s upholding of the Teina Pora appeal is further evidence New Zealand needs a Criminal Cases Review Panel, Dean of the University of Canterbury’s School of Law, Associate Professor Chris Gallavin says. ...

A careful assessment of what could happen to the health of New Zealanders under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is needed, say New Zealand doctors. An Australian report Negotiating Healthy Trade in Australia: Health Impact Assessment ...

Youth organisation, Generation Zero, is today launching a report - Fix Our City: An analysis of the Transport Budget in the 2015 - 2025 Long Term Plan - that proposes that Auckland Council focuses on a transport budget that prioritises… ...

“We are delighted to see that the politicians have recognised the greed and selfishness embodied in their initial response to their remuneration increases and are now proposing to amend the appropriate legislation. About time! ” ...

International Women’s Day is a day for celebrating women’s economic, political and social achievements around the globe. It is a day to acknowledge women’s successes, while recognising that there is still a long way to go in ending the inequalities… ...

Family First NZ says that the NZ lecture tour by Dr Rob Jonquiere, a leader of the Dutch euthanasia movement, will ignore the mounting evidence from his own country that there’s no safe way to kill people and that assisted… ...

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie has today announced the appointment of Brook Barrington as Chief Executive and Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). ...

Rainbow Labour will be learning from the outcomes of the recent United Nations Development Programme’s Regional dialogue on LGBTI rights and health in Asia and the Pacific recently held in Bangkok, Thailand over February 25-27 and attended by Labour MP… ...

Carer Relief Workers Gain Minimum Employment Rights Over 35,000 home care relief workers have gained the right to the minimum wage and holidays through a case won by the Service and Food Workers Union in the Employment Court. The court… ...